Thaw
by doopdoop2
Summary: During a rescue mission, Iida gets trapped in a crevasse and has a near-death experience. Afterwards, Bakugou's walls crumble. (Oneshot)


Iida shouldn't have volunteered.

He liked rescue missions, but he should have known the limits of his abilities, should have reminded himself that his Quirk relied on sure footing.

He should have known this was a mission that called for carefulness, strength and delicacy, not speed.

He should have stayed behind.

But it was too late for that now - too late for much of anything besides holding himself very still and hoping the others came to look for him soon.

Over the hour or so he'd been stuck, his terror had faded to a mild ache, allowing him to finally take note of his surroundings. The strip of sky visible overhead was still bright, but Iida himself was in shadow. His world had narrowed to white ahead and behind, blue above and gray darkness below. All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, and occasionally the wind blowing, eerie but distant, high above his head.

He was afraid that if he took too deep of breaths or tried to call out it might jostle him enough to dislodge him from the great sheets of ice and send him further below; same for if he tried to use his Quirk. But he was covered head-to-toe in heavy winter gear, and only his exposed face felt cold: he could hang on for a while.

* * *

The sky had begun to grow dusky by the time he heard them calling his name.

"I'm here!" Iida shouted, his heart in his throat. "Hello! Over here!" Luckily he seemed to have settled enough in the intervening hours that the small movement made when he shouted didn't change his position.

Then, over the edge of the crevasse, a face appeared: Bakugou.

It was bright enough in the world above that Iida could see him clearly; indeed Bakugou almost seemed to glow, lit orange by sunset. He peered down, saw Iida and froze, his face taking on a look of wide-eyed horror that Iida had never seen on him before.

"Bakugou!" Iida yelled, more from reflex than anything; they'd already made eye contact, after all, and it wasn't like Bakugou could misunderstand the situation Iida was in.

Bakugou disappeared, but half a minute later others appeared - Midoriya and Aizawa and Todoroki and Uraraka and Sero and Kirishima -

Aizawa was talking to them up above, his voice inaudible to Iida. Suddenly Iida's his vision blurred, and he realized he was crying - from relief or from delayed fear, he wasn't sure. He couldn't raise his arms to wipe the tears, but he didn't feel them anyway as they fell down his eyes and onto his cheeks. He was too numb.

Up above, they were doing something with Uraraka - Iida wasn't sure, it was hard to follow anything that distant - and suddenly she was lowered head-first into the crevasse until she was within arm's reach of him. "Iida," she said, and touched him, and he felt her trying to work her Quirk, but he was too firmly wedged in for it to be enough.

"Can you wiggle out?" she said. "Don't worry about falling - I've got you."

"I can't…" His throat was dry, his face numb. He swallowed and tried to do as she said, but his body felt heavy and far weaker than normal. He shook his head. "I can't move."

"Okay," she said, "that's fine. We can do something else. Hang in there."

Iida tried to smile, but he wasn't sure the expression he gave Uraraka as she disappeared resembled one at all.

A few minutes later Todoroki appeared, upside-down like Uraraka had been. He was broader, though, and it wasn't as easy for him to get near. He was holding a coil of rope in one hand, and with the other he delicately began to melt the ice around Iida.

"She's still got you," Todoroki said. "Uraraka. With her Quirk."

Iida nodded. After a moment his shoulders were freed enough for Todoroki to slip the rope over them. He cinched it and gave an experimental tug, but it did nothing; Iida was still trapped. Then Todoroki kept working, melting the ice around Iida's body until finally, when Todoroki gave another tug, Iida felt himself pulled upwards, free.

After Iida was pulled up to the surface, Uraraka released her Quirk, dropping Iida onto his back on the snow. A second later Todoroki popped back up - Sero had been dangling him, it looked like - and slipped his mittens back on. It was nearly dark, the sun long gone by now.

"Uraraka, can you help carry him down?" Aizawa said. "Iida, we've got a First Aid team at the base of the mountain - we'll check you out when we get down there. For now we've got to hurry while we can still see the trail."

Time seemed to pass in a rush, things changing faster than Iida could comprehend: one minute he was floating, staring at the sky; then there was the sudden brightness and heat of a building, someone stripping his clothing off and looking at his fingers and toes and face. He went from being numb to hurting all over, a sharp ache like a bad sunburn.

"That's good," someone (a doctor?) was saying. "I don't think there will be any permanent damage. You were very lucky."

And suddenly they were dressing him once more, and he was shuttled into a car and then into a hotel. He felt himself becoming more aware, little by little, once he got there. He saw Midoriya carrying his overnight bag - the hotel stay had been the plan to begin with, because the mountain wasn't close enough to go there and back in one day - and he saw his classmates walking alongside him; he walked on his own two feet now, but Uraraka was there, watching him closely, just in case. Iida became aware that everyone was looking at him with varying degrees of cautiousness and relief. Bakugou, though, was giving him a look that felt closer to anger, and Iida couldn't say he blamed him for it. Iida had come there intending to be a rescuer, and in the end he'd wasted his classmates' time being rescued. It was shameful.

Aizawa brought him to his room, standing in the doorway as Iida sat down on the edge of the bed. "Iida," Aizawa began, his tone tense, and Iida braced himself - but no lecture was forthcoming. All he said was, "According to the doctor you should be fine, but if you feel ill or have questions, come find me or tell a classmate."

"I'm sorry," Iida said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"Not now," Aizawa said, his hand on the door. "By the way, they serve food downstairs. No room service, though."

"Thank you," Iida said, not for what he'd said about the food but for the mercy Iida knew he didn't deserve. Aizawa nodded and left and, for the first time since he'd been freed, Iida was alone. He wasn't sure what to do; he'd spent the night being passive, lettings others carry him and dress him and examine him, and now, suddenly, there were no demands being made.

Iida took off his clothes and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. He looked fine, nothing worse than the tenderness of new bruises to show for the experience. The pain in his limbs had faded, and he wasn't numb anymore, either.

Iida changed into his pajamas and sat in bed, mind blank, awake but thoughtless. He wasn't sure how much time passed, but the trance was broken when there was a knock at the door.

He rose a little stiffly, expecting Aizawa or Midoriya or Uraraka. But instead it was Bakugou. Iida stood looking at him for a long moment, too surprised to comprehend, until Bakugou said, "You gonna let me in or what?"

"I'm sorry," Iida said, stepping aside.

Bakugou tossed something at him. Iida caught it - it was a prepackaged sandwich.

"Thanks," Iida said, only realizing at that moment how hungry he was. He'd had nothing to eat since before noon, and in the confusion after his rescue it had slipped his mind. He was too grateful and pleased to feel surprise right away; he sat down on the bed, unwrapped the sandwich and ate it without preamble, not pausing until he was finished. When he looked up, Bakugou was still there, standing in the middle of his hotel room, watching him.

"Thanks," Iida said again. He took a long drink of water. Then something occurred to him. It had been Bakugou who'd found him in the first place. Iida remembered the look of terror on Bakugou's face - Bakugou, who showed his emotions so openly, but never fear, not like that. "Thank you for helping me earlier today," Iida said.

"For what? I didn't _do _anything," Bakugou said.

"You found me."

"Yeah, so? Are you just glad I told someone instead of pretending I didn't see you and leaving you to die? You asshole, do you really think that's something I'd do?"

Iida smiled. A younger version of himself would have gotten pulled into this verbal back-and-forth, but he was older, and knew Bakugou well enough by now to understand that this misunderstanding was willful. "It might have just been luck that you stumbled onto me when I was trapped, but can't I still be grateful?" he said.

Bakugou stared at him for a second. Then he lowered his head and took a long inhale, and Iida heard a catch in it that sounded an awful lot like Bakugou was close to tears. "You're a fucking idiot," he said. "You're so stupid."

"I know."

Bakugou raised his head to meet Iida's gaze head-on. He wasn't crying, not yet, but his eyes were bright, his face flushed with anger. "It was just a rescue mission but you got yourself stuck like that. It was just a rescue mission. It wasn't even that difficult."

"I know," Iida said. "I know."

"You're _so fucking lucky, _" Bakugou said, and there, _now _he was crying, not bothering to the tears either - facing Iida down with his cheeks running with them. "If that hole had been a little wider, you would have fallen that much deeper. And you would have died."

"I know, I-"

"Shut up!" Bakugou said, striding over to stand just in front of him. "We were looking for you for so long, the whole day, and Aizawa was about to call off the search because it was getting dark. You're-"

Iida stood and put his arms around Bakugou.

He didn't understand what was going on. Well, he did and he didn't at the same time. If it had been one of his classmates who'd had a near-death experience of this sort - that is, one caused by their own carelessness - he would have given them an earful, too. So, on that level, this lecture made sense. Iida had been expecting it; he was sure he'd get half a dozen or more versions of it, from friends and teachers and family, before the week was out.

But Bakugou?

Crying over him?

Bakugou stiffened in his arms, but didn't fight the embrace. After a moment Iida felt him relax, his face coming to rest on Iida's shoulder. Bakugou put his arms around Iida and cried, and Iida held him and felt his body shake with sobs.

Iida could not remember ever even hugging Bakugou, yet somehow this didn't feel wrong at all. He always knew Bakugou as someone prickly, defensive, ready to push others away, but holding him in his arms somehow seemed natural. Iida rubbed a hand up and down Bakugou's back, feeling the warmth of his body through his shirt, and Bakugou grew very still.

"In the future," Iida said quietly, "I'll be more careful."

Bakugou pulled away from the hug and looked up at him. Iida was happy to see he was no longer crying, though his eyes were red. "You better take me seriously," he said.

"I do take you seriously."

As Bakugou looked at him, Iida felt as if something had shifted between them, as if where they stood now was drastically different from the day before. How long, Iida wondered, had this rawness been simmering inside Bakugou, this need, this fear, ready to explode outwards at any moment?

Bakugou was silent. Iida felt that this moment, this _whatever it was _that was happening, surely could not be one-sided; it was Bakugou who'd opened his heart first, after all. So Iida, knowing that, raised one hand and placed it gently on the side of Bakugou's face. He did not miss the way Bakugou's eyes widened at the touch.

"Bakugou," Iida said, "you-"

Bakugou kissed him.

It was more forceful than he'd been expecting, and dry at first; Iida's lips were chapped, and for a moment the texture was unpleasant. But when they pulled away Iida licked his lips and leaned in and kissed him again, and it was good - Bakugou had kissed him first, but now Iida set the pace, using the hand still on Bakugou's cheek to draw him closer.

It was so unlike Iida, all this - kissing someone he'd considered up until ten minutes ago to be barely a friend; making a move in general without discussing or even_considering _the ramifications of it. Maybe it was the strangeness of the day, the adrenaline still in his blood that made him act so rashly, or maybe it was simply his response to Bakugou's out of character behavior. Iida didn't know. In that moment he didn't let himself stop to consider it, either. He kept kissing Bakugou, knowing he was probably terrible at it, feeling the kiss growing sloppier as the seconds went on and not caring in the slightest. Bakugou put his hands on either side of Iida's body at about ribcage-level and held on, his grip tight. Iida felt himself react to the touch, arching his back to press himself closer to Bakugou's body.

They split apart again, reluctantly on Iida's part, and the look Bakugou gave him was stern, though his kiss-swollen lips lessened the effect somewhat. "You're in shock or something, aren't you," he said, his voice a growl. "That's why you're…" He trailed off, looking away.

"No," Iida said. "The doctor said I was fine." He was pretty sure that wasn't how being in shock worked, anyway. "And I feel fine. It's nothing like that."

"Then you're pitying me."

"No," Iida said, and realized all of a sudden what this was about. Bakugou was looking for some sign this wasn't one-sided - somehow having his kiss returned wasn't enough. Iida shook his head. "No," he said again. "It's not pity. It's…" He swallowed, struggling to find the words. "I'm surprised, yes, but I'm not - it's not pity, it's - you-"

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, where his glasses sat. "It isn't pity," he said again, repetition sounding idiotic even to his own ears. "Bakugou, I can promise you that."

Bakugou looked at him through narrowed eyes. In that moment Iida felt himself stripped bare, as if Bakugou could see directly into his thoughts. If he could, though, he would hardly get any more clarity on the issue; Iida was so tired his mind was nearly blank. All he knew in that moment was that he did not want Bakugou's hands to let go of his body, did not want Bakugou to step away or - worse - leave the room entirely. "Stay the night," Iida said, glancing around the room. The bed was good-sized, a queen maybe. "Sleep here with me."

"You _are _in shock," Bakugou said, and Iida opened his mouth to protest until he realized that Bakugou was smiling: he'd made a joke. The idea made Iida's heart twist.

"I don't think wanting to share a bed is a symptom of that," Iida said, adjusting his glasses and wondering if he was blushing.

It wasn't long before they settled into bed for the night. Iida was exhausted, and everything was beginning to get that distant, dreamlike feel, the way it had just after he'd been rescued. As he slid under the covers, and Bakugou turned off the light and did the same, Iida knew it wouldn't take long for him to fall asleep - no matter that his bed partner was someone he would have never expected.

Tomorrow, tomorrow would be another story. Tomorrow they'd discuss it - maybe - and Iida would trip over his own words, and Bakugou would be coy and defensive. They might argue, or, worse, they might split apart awkwardly in the morning and pretend nothing ever happened. Iida's heart sank just at the thought of that. No - maybe it was best to do something now, while their guards were down, no matter how tired he was.

"Bakugou."

Silence, but Iida knew Bakugou wasn't asleep yet, and continued on:

"Please don't pretend this didn't happen."

No response. Wanting to clarify, and searching for some kind of response, he said:

"I enjoyed - kissing you. I would like to do it again some time."

It was still silent - but after a moment Iida felt Bakugou touch his arm. He maneuvered his own hand down to clasp Bakugou's. When Iida tightened his grip, he felt Bakugou squeeze back.

"Go to sleep," Bakugou said, maybe a minute later. He took his hand back, and Iida's felt cold without it. But it was - it was something; it was enough.

He had to trust Bakugou. And, as he drifted off to sleep, Iida realized he did.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I wrote this a month ago, but realized I hadn't uploaded it yet.

If you'd like to chat with me, please find me on twitter: **doop_doop2**


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